The most consequential leadership decisions in the world are being made across the Asia-Pacific right now.
We work with the people making them.
There Is a Better Way to Lead
The most successful boards and executive teams in the world share one quality that rarely appears in a governance framework or a leadership competency model. They understand how they think. Not just what they think.
Cognitive science has known for decades the most capable leaders carry systematic blind spots: confirmation bias, groupthink, attribution errors and comfort in the status quo. These are common features of human cognition that, left unexamined, quietly erode the quality of every consequential decision an organisation makes.
Destrier Group was founded on a simple conviction: The science of human decision-making and the identification of hidden talent is the most underused competitive advantage available to any board or executive team, and the strengths of the Asia Pacific region are under-utilised.
Leaders willing to engage honestly with the science of leadership, and the realities of our region and it’s people will consistently outperform those who do not.
Built for Australasia and the Asia-Pacific
Leadership science developed in Europe and America embeds assumptions that do not survive contact with our region. We are unique, growing, and independent minded. Organisations that ignore these differences do not just miss opportunity, they hire, retain and promote the wrong people for the work at hand.
Destrier Group's research, methodology, and advisory practice was built here, for us. We are proud of the diversity and richness of our culture, and collective success. It is the foundation of the insight we offer and the reason our work achieves what imported frameworks consistently fail to.
About Destrier Group
Destrier Group is an independent consulting firm working at the intersection of organisational psychology, psychometrics, and AI-powered intelligence. We partner with boards and executive teams across the Asia-Pacific region who hold themselves to a higher standard of performance, self-awareness, and evidence based practice.
We are not a traditional advisory firm. We bring don’t bring pre-packaged frameworks, recycled models, or carbon copy solutions designed for a different region and a different era. We are not the old-guard. We are born global, and we work for you.
Every engagement begins with rigorous, independent assessment. Every recommendation is grounded in peer-reviewed science. Every program or assessment is built for your specific people needs and team dynamics.
Our clients are leaders who have already forged reputations for bravery, entrepreneurialism and ingenious strategy. We partner with them to identify their talent and develop strategic paths to capitalise on their already significant achievements and gear up for what comes next.
Arabella Steel | Founder & Organisational Psychologist
Arabella Steel is a registered Organisational Psychologist (AHPRA) and Member of the Australian Psychological Society, with more than two decades of specialist practice spanning executive assessment, leadership performance, and board-level advisory across the Asia-Pacific region. She founded Destrier Group on a single conviction: that the behavioural and cognitive sciences remain the most systematically underused source of competitive advantage available to boards and senior leadership teams.
Arabella holds a Master of Organisational Psychology from Macquarie University. She is a member of Macquarie University's Performance and Expertise Research Centre, and has presented her research at its Annual Symposium in 2023 and 2025. She is also an affiliate of the University of Sydney's Centre for AI, Trust and Governance, and an internationally published author.
Her professional career spans private practice and global executive search. Prior to founding Destrier Group, Arabella worked in international executive search assessment, advising leaders and executive teams through talent identification, succession planning, role complexity, organisational change, and capability transformation. Her academic and professional experience forms the applied foundation for a practice that now operates at the intersection of organisational psychology, psychometrics, and AI-powered governance intelligence.
Arabella holds advanced certifications in the Hogan Assessment Suite (Peter Berry Consultancy), the SHL OPQ32, and the Cognadev Cognitive Processing Profile, a suite of instruments used in senior leader and board director assessment internationally. She is a Certified Organisational Coach (IECL).
She is the founder of RISHI. Board Mentor. Risk Guardian™, Destrier Group's proprietary AI-powered governance intelligence platform built specifically for APAC board directors navigating the realities of human-AI decision-making. She speaks and publishes internationally on cognitive risk in leadership, human-AI decision-making, and the behavioural science of governance.